Monday, December 25, 2017

The Walnut Room is the first restaurant in a department store and is the longest continuously running restaurant in the country. Opened in 1907, the room best known for its 45-foot tree during the holidays was originally known as the South Tea Room. It became known as the Walnut Room because of its circassian walnut paneling, and by 1937 the nickname stuck. A chicken pot pie dish that inspired the restaurant is still a mainstay on the menu.

Opened in 1907, the room best known for its 45-foot tree during the holidays was originally known as the South Tea Room.

Cécile McLorin Salvant’s Timeless Jazz

Only a few years into her career, the singer has absorbed the music’s history and made it her own.

On a
Thursday evening a few months ago, a long line snaked along Seventh
Avenue, outside the Village Vanguard, a cramped basement night club in
Greenwich Village that jazz fans regard as a temple. The eight-thirty
set was sold out, as were the ten-thirty set and nearly all the other
shows that week. The people descending the club’s narrow steps had come
to hear a twenty-seven-year-old singer named Cécile McLorin Salvant. In
its sixty years as a jazz club, the Vanguard has headlined few women and
fewer singers of either gender. But Salvant, virtually unknown two
years earlier, had built an avid following, winning a Grammy and several
awards from critics, who praised her singing as “singularly arresting”
and “artistry of the highest class.”

Cécile McLorin Salvant performs at Jazz @ Lincoln Center

She
and her trio—a pianist, a bassist, and a drummer, all men in their
early thirties—emerged from the dressing lounge and took their places on
a lit-up stage: the men in sharp suits, Salvant wearing a gold-colored
Issey Miyake dress, enormous pink-framed glasses, and a wide, easy
smile. She nodded to the crowd and took a few glances at the walls,
which were crammed with photographs of jazz icons who had played there:
Sonny Rollins cradling a tenor saxophone, Dexter Gordon gazing through a
cloud of cigarette smoke, Charlie Haden plucking a bass with back-bent
intensity. This was the first time Salvant had been booked at the
club—for jazz musicians, a sign that they’d made it and a test of
whether they’d go much farther. She seemed very happy to be there.

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Lawyer Interrupted: Successfully Transitioning From the Traditional Practice of LawTHE WHOLE LAWYER TRACKLawyers in Transition CommitteeTwenty years ago, the only career transitions most lawyers made were due to discipline and retirement. Not so today. There is an evolving awareness and acceptance of the versatility of the law degree in a great many fields, including creative fields, previously thought to attract only non-lawyers. Amy Impellizzeri, award-winning author ofLawyer Interrupted, Lemongrass Hope, and Secrets of Worry Dolls will discuss her own transition from a 13-year corporate litigation career - including a decade at Skadden Arps - to her career as a full-time novelist. She will share the pivotal lessons she learned and heeded from creative peers (and fellow interrupted lawyers) including celebrity designer, Jill Donovan and internationally renowned lego brick artist, Nathan Sawaya, among more.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Midst heat in the mid 90's and a heat index up to 105 New Yorkers reveled at the 20's inspired Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governors Island.Tribeca Trib video link

The weather hearkened back to the days of Gatsby

" "The next day was broiling, almost the last, certainly the warmest, of
the summer."" Great Gatsby

The Jazz Age Lawn Party is New York City’s original
prohibition era inspired gathering. Hosted and conceived by Michael
Arenella, the event started as a small gathering of perhaps fifty
friends and fans. The event, initially produced by the island, was
handed over to Michael in its third year to organize and grow. Under his
watch, the event was carefully crafted and nurtured, becoming what is
now referred to by The Wall Street Journal as, “the biggest (not to mention the cleanest and most family-oriented) regular event in the ‘Retro Noveau’ movement…”
It was at this time that St-Germain joined forces with The Lawn Party,
delightfully whetting the whistles of fops and flappers with their
refreshing summer cocktails.

Michael Arenella and his Dreamland Orchestra performed midst 94 degree temps that felt like 105!

Selected by The New York Times as one of the most memorable events of 2011 and 2012, The Jazz Age Lawn Party
offers a magical opportunity to travel back in time. August 13th and 14th guests were invited to discover and experience one of the most
colorful and formative epochs in American history.